World's Weirdest: Underwater Love Chain

Sea hares are hermaphrodites who really like to share the love. During mating, each sea hare serves as both a male and a female to different partners simultaneously, creating a long chain that can yield millions of eggs.

World's Weirdest: Underwater Love Chain

Sea hares are hermaphrodites who really like to share the love. During mating, each sea hare serves as both a male and a female to different partners simultaneously, creating a long chain that can yield millions of eggs.

Named for the rabbit-ear-shaped growths on its head, these floppy rhinophore tentacles actually are the creature's nose, which it uses to find food and mates.

It floats gracefully through the water on its two wing flaps, seemingly without a care.

And why not? It's toxic, making it extremely unpopular with predators.

It dines on algae and seaweed, available everywhere.

And when it's time to mate, it calls up everyone in its little black book. Everyone.

Sea hares are hermaphrodites.

They contain both male and female sex organs.

The first sea hare acts solely as a female, and is mounted by a second sea hare...who acts as a male to the first and female to a third...and so on down the line, to the last hare, who acts only as a male.

A pregnant sea hare will lay spaghetti-like strands of millions of eggs, anchored for safety to the kelp beds.

World's Weirdest: Underwater Love Chain

Sea hares are hermaphrodites who really like to share the love. During mating, each sea hare serves as both a male and a female to different partners simultaneously, creating a long chain that can yield millions of eggs.